Links
by Kayo-San
Summary: A series of what-ifs and could-have-beens depending on different starts and ideas, built off the Sakura!centric, OC-I, Chains, alt. The Chains!AU Collection. As always, taking prompts
1. Chapter 1 - Civilian AU

1\. If Chains were semi-Road to Sakura compliant and Sakura's parents were ninja.

alt. the Civilian!AU

* * *

The elderly village leader looks at her and opens his mouth -

"I am sorry for your loss. They were honourable ninja of the village."

Yuurei blinks, politeness dying on her lips, her demand laced by a foreign anger, "You're not going to tell me how Father and Mother died?"

The man presses his hands together in a steeple and lowers his face till the brim of his hat touches his fingertips.

"I am afraid that that information is classified, Haruno-kun, they were on a mission, you are not even a ninja yet."

She pretends to mull it over.

"And what does being a ninja entail?"

The leader, defensive and evasive, she is a child, he can hardly tell her – "I'm guessing that ninja are expected to murder on command?"

His hands break and his eyes meet hers – suddenly sharp and she doesn't flinch though she knows a child should.

Her mouth runs itself off.

"Father and Mother were never around. I am not a sheltered child, Hokage-sama. So how many years would I have to spend playing ninja to know someone as simple as how my parents died? Just tell me that bandits killed them and I will be on my way."

Her new friend/companion-thing, Naruto has his mouth wide open.

Obviously, he is far from the best company but Sakura has this niggling sensation at the back of her head – _if he wasn't here, you would be dead._

 _dead._

The leader inclines his head again, hiding his eyes and Sakura knows full well he is lying when he says, "Since you're so insistent, Haruno-kun, the truth is that your parents were assassinated by a new terrorist organisation, their name is Akatsuki."

She could scoff, _what, an organisation called 'Red Dawn'? how tacky._

He attempts to tap into her non-existent love for her parents, imagining that she would in her grief and love decide to seek revenge, therefore become a ninja and seek the power to bring her parents' killers to justice.

 _(Yuurei is not their child. I am not, I am not and I do not care – I cannot kill for the sake of such a meaningless truth.)_

She looks the leader in the eye, standing on her chair, her tiny fist on the oak desk.

Sakura is somewhat aware of the masked ninja that have suddenly appeared, pushing Naruto away from the chair's side and now surround her.

"Is that a yes, Haruno-kun?" those eyes, kind and grandfatherly – she doesn't trust that kindness.

"Not at all Hokage-sama. I have no intention of being a ninja. If my parents died then I do not think I would be cut out to be one."

Pleasantly, revelling in the frustration swirling in those black eyes like they are her candy.

"What would you do then, Haruno-kun?"

She smiles.

"I am going to earn money."

* * *

Yuurei had some morals.

 _Yuurei also has the intelligence._

Sakura throws some away.

 _Sakura has chakra and though she isn't a ninja, she has these extra appendages._

Sakura isn't a ninja, she is a civilian.

She is 6 when she begins and uses her cuteness to get a ninja off the street to tell her more about ninja.

He accommodates her, points out the shelves of books according to the type and even tells her about ANBU – "They're the super-secret ones that will grab you if you're a bad kid."

She is 7 when she scores herself a tutor in the form of the librarian and has managed to circumvent the compulsory-schooling law by being classed as home-schooled.

Haruno Mebuki and Kizashi were well off – Very well off, perhaps it was an indication of the type of missions they took.

Maybe more of it, was the indication of what kind of ninja they were.

She is still 7 and she has decided that her parents were ANBU.

After all, they aren't on the stone.

She spends the day searching the stone for their names and in the end there's nothing there.

She assumes and never comes back.

The grey-haired ANBU looks over this pink-haired girl who spent hours tracing every name on the stone and left with a renewed vigour.

He wonders.

 _What does she have that I lack that I cannot look like that when I leave?_

She is 7 but the leader of her great village only smiles at her when she files paperwork to buy into a textile merchant's business.

The merchant takes her on like she's an investor but by the time she is 8 there is not enough space for both in that one business.

They're joint holders but everyone in the market knows she has the money.

So she reaches out to the competitors.

 _"If I offer this to you, what can you give me in return?"_

They offer her everything and she tells them, "I want to buy your business."

Yuurei thinks.

 _What sort of capitalist economy doesn't have a single anti-trust law?_

She doesn't quite like how the Hokage smiles at her when she walks into his office for him to simply witness the signing over of multiple businesses over to her.

The merchants walk out and the Lord Hokage calls out, "Businessman Haruno, if I could have a word?"

 _(The other merchants gossip, "Did you know, the Lord Haruno has the Hokage's favour?)_

She smiles a knife's smile and the Hokage merely advises, "Draw a picture of your alternate persona, Haruno-kun. It won't do if Haruno Seiji looks a little different every day, right?"

* * *

Yuurei is not a ninja, neither is Sakura.

Yuurei obviously cannot do a henge, but Sakura is very good at it, perhaps that's because her _chains,_ if they can be called that are so malleable.

She knows the theory of a henge, of course.

Chakra is fascinating, the librarian has lectured her on the force multiple times but she always feigns boredom because if not, the great leader would get her enrolled. She finishes school quickly, passes the exams of the civilian school and graduates early to freedom.

But Chakra… that one lingering thing and the lingering things that blossom from her back and continue to multiply, increasing in length, number and thickness.

She forms constructs out of them – her transformation is solid because she's technically wearing a body suit that looks and feels like flesh.

Seiji is much taller than Sakura – he's a little more similar to what Yuurei is used to.

At 170 cm, Haruno Seiji has an aura of calmness, he's slow to anger but quick to react and that intimidates people.

At 1450 mm, Sakura is 8 and wears her hair short like Seiji.

Her parents are ANBU and therefore as far as people are concerned, they're alone.

When people ask, Seiji demurs and shifts the topic to his lovely younger sibling, "She's home-schooled but a good child. When she's older, I'll let her run the business with me."

This is an elaborate ploy – _what? The village doesn't have an open database, the Haruno had no close family friends capable of outing her._

* * *

Seiji ends a day after work, opens the door and calls out, "I'm home," so loud the neighbours can hear him – closes the door before they can hear the reply and fact is.

There isn't a separate Sakura.

That is the realisation the grey-haired ANBU comes to.

Haruno Seiji walked into the bathroom and out came Haruno Sakura.

The girl sits down at the family table alone and eats a simple meal of rice and fried fish.

He shifts a little closer to look at the child who pretends to be the merchant he's in charge of looking after.

"If you care enough for Father and Mother then you will keep my secret, yes, ANBU-san?"

She cuts through the fish and speaks knowing he'll listen and he keeps his laughs silent.

 _As if I care about her parents._

Because, Yuurei assumes – a secret task force with no one ought to at least recognise their own.

It begs the question of course,

 _I wonder what happened to Haruno Mebuki and Kizashi._

The ANBU wonders, but only nods.

That is enough of an answer for Yuurei.

Sakura has cemented her idea that her parents were ANBU.

Sakura is 9 and she has taken control of the entire textile industry of Konoha.

A monopoly of the first kind – as if she were a pioneer of this market structure that no one had ever seen before.

She is 9 and she has decided, _no, I no longer need to hide behind the façade of an older male._

"ANBU-san, will you pretend to be Seiji?"

It's a power shift – she is a fool to trust the ninja with her persona, a fool to teach him how to act and he smiles at the next merchant, telling him, "This is Sakura, she'll be taking over from me."

The girl holding his hand murmurs, "Next, Merchant Guild Head, Tadashi-sama."

Vaguely, the ANBU recognises the male, _oh this man, always causing trouble for the ninja-half of the council. Hm. Hokage-sama considered dealing away with him before. Merchant Guild Heads are always the most troublesome, the most prone to being compromised._

'Seiji' smiles pleasantly, introducing Sakura who has her chains wrapped around him, _it's not uncomfortable,_ he admits.

 _It's oddly comforting because she is a child without the ability to kill._

He places a warm hand on top of Sakura's head and feels her questioning gaze on him – they confuse the ninjas into thinking 'Seiji' is real.

After all, her chakra is so thick it hides his already muted signature. Blood-related kin tend to feel similar, without a trained sensor he feels real enough, therefore Haruno Seiji is Haruno Sakura's older sibling.

* * *

And before Sakura even had a chance to react, her older brother has swirled around to grab a child in his arms and protect all of them from the sudden volley of apples.

 _(the sun. hair blond like the sun, ah she had never seen him again after that one day.)_

"Naruto-kun!" she calls out to try and rationalise why the fine member of the upstanding merchant community would protect the 'demon'.

She is a child and mistakes can be forgiven.

The market breaks out into hushed mutterings.

"Nii-chan! This is the friend I was talking about! Naruto-kun, this is my nii-chan, Seiji."

Seiji runs a hand through the hair which doesn't stick up quite the right way, carefully pulling Sakura into an embrace, murmuring, "Sakura…"

She cocks her head aside, though her arms come up to hug her brother back.

Her confusion is real, split between _/why don't they like Naruto/_ and \how it is that you are hugging me\

Naruto smiles a shy smile and Seiji smiles back, landing a very gentle and tender hand on his head.

 _(the sun bloomed like an explosion and)_ a hush fell over the crowd.

"There's nothing scary at all about you after all, huh. I heard you were a notorious prankster, Naruto-san."

The blond rubs the back of his head, "Don't worry I won't prank you if you're good to Sakura-chan."

 _His heart is so wide. She hasn't seen him since that day yet he so readily opened his heart to her._

Sakura decides then.

"Nii-chan. Will you be Naruto-kun's nii-chan too?"

Before the merchants and the crowd, 'Seiji' agrees and Sakura's plans from the beginning are ruined.

She needs this ANBU now.

She can't be both 'Seiji' and Sakura at the same time.

 _She was wrong. This was a mistake, but she had done it._

The apples from that merchant were sour.

Seiji is not a forgiving person.

Seiji must also love his younger sister enough to keep her entirely sheltered from the world.

Therefore.

* * *

Sakura becomes distracted in her conquest.

She had thought textiles would be where she would start, and Artisan Guild Head where she would end.

 _Hm. Fuki-sama can have another year._

Seiji buys over all the small farms in the region.

That is the end of sour apples. Except the granny smiths.

She still wants to make pie.

* * *

She began as a textile shop, became a farm owner and then a baker.

She ended as the backbone of a nation.

* * *

He began as a ninja, became a pretender, then became her brother.

He ended up as their brother.

* * *

 _(they lived happily ever after.)_

* * *

Hello guys, Kayo here, back after a month.

Basically, I have a plot bunny problem, especially when I talk to readers.

This chapter is specifically dedicated to TheOne320 who gave me the muse for this chapter.

I did not finish the entirety of canon, and honestly, I always took it for granted that Sakura's parents were civilian cause Kakashi at the very start.

But because Kishimoto wrote Road to Sakura, it seems quite official that Sakura came from a ninja family, just not a ninja clan.

I guess this reads a bit like an extended synopsis, I would love to see people write this story out. If this idea strikes your fancy and you want to write it, I'd love to read/beta(if needed) it. Do PM if you'd like to try out this prompt, and I'll link your story here for future readers :)

Do review when you come by, this has been sitting here for about two weeks but I couldn't write out the next chapter of Chains in time aihhh so here, have this first!

What do you think, what other AUs would you all like to see? Just drop it in a review or PM yeah, don't be shy!


	2. Chapter 2 - ShikakuSakura AU

2\. If Chains was turned on its head, Sakura was less of a child and less of an older sister to Shikamaru but a mother figure instead.

Post-Tenkawa's death, runs parallel to Chapter 12.

alt. the Shikaku/Sakura!AU

* * *

It was a very simple thing.

They were eating dinner again and Sakura and Shikamaru were talking softly, across the small table.

"Did you pack for tomorrow's training exercise?"

His son gives a non-committal hum, looking away guiltily and Sakura sighs.

"Shika-chan, they're tossing us into a forest for a week and if you don't pack well you'll be in trouble."

"I'm sure Chouji will have packed more than enough food, and I'm sure Ino will have all the other things. I just need to show up, that's all."

Sakura takes up his logic to convince him – something remarkably Nara to do, but Shikaku can't help but muse, _logic is good at showing people their errors in thought, but people aren't logical, they don't move because of emotion._

It is, after all, the reason why most Naras who marry out of the clan _(that is, most)_ end up with partners who tend to be more emotional.

"Mm, but what makes you think that Chouji-kun and Ino-chan don't think the same way? Wouldn't they count on you, being smart, to know exactly what to pack to cover for them?"

She prods at his ego in all the right points, turning his rationale back on him, but still, Shikamaru counters.

"But they know I'm lazy," he dips into the emotional aspect of things, clumsily and attacking his own character _(though true)_ while he's at it.

Shikaku offers her an amused smirk across the table.

They both know she's won.

"But they also trust you, Shika-chan."

"All the stores are going to be closed soon though…" his child, _(didn't I teach him better?),_ falling back on assumptions and lies to try and get out of tasks still.

"Then hurry up and eat, we can go together," she humours him the way he doubts Yoshino would have, he imagines his wife would have called his son right out on his nonsense.

Sakura goes with the flow and guiding the flow here and there – using logic and then emotion, with Shikamaru's and against him.

As an outsider looking in on the conversation, Shikaku can honestly say that he concedes – it's beautiful to see the lines Sakura draws around Shikamaru to eventually trap him.

Not too unlike shogi.

Shikamaru huffs a little but eats faster.

His son, too, concedes defeat.

"Fine, Kaa-saaaan," dragging out the honorary suffix as if trialling the sound of the word 'mother' on his tongue.

Then Shikaku realises.

 _Of course._

 _Shikamaru's first word was 'Tou' after all. And Yoshino left soon after._

A little memory hiding in the recesses of his mind, hazing over his thoughts as he watches his son and that pink-haired girl eat.

* * *

They leave for the marketplace.

Shikaku places the dishes in the sink and tells himself, "I'll do them later."

He nurses a small cup of sake, telling himself, "Just a little sip."

Inoichi of all people comes a-knocking at seven 'o' clock in the evening.

The gate guard lets him without question, of course, the shadows have always welcomed the gentle presence of a mind-reader who values friendship over honesty.

His friend is a little pale, clutching at a dossier marked 'Report: Unsanctioned Aid Rendered'.

He passes the sake bottle without being asked, waits for the blond to take a heavy swig – watching till Inoichi dangles the bottle carelessly by its neck.

"What is it, Inoichi?"

The T&I Head is almost predictable by now. Torn between both his loyalty to his nation and his friendships, reconsidering for a final moment if he should, or should not tell him.

Shikaku knows him well – he's probably agonised over the thought for hours but the final decision always winds up being 'tell him, because he can make the best decision for Konoha'.

It's a benefit of being a tactician who moved counters on a war map, seeing troops as nothing more but numbers and playing war like its chess and being able to carelessly throw a pawn to its death for the sake of an enemy queen.

 _(He's not so easily shaken by things.)_

He stretches out to take the file.

Inoichi doesn't immediately let go, keeping a loose grip on the file that tightens the moment Shikaku tugs.

The Nara Clan Head frowns. _That's not normal._

The blond takes another swig from the bottle before waggling the bottle at him, "I'm already drunk. You need to promise me that you won't lose your head if I give this to you."

Palming the empty sake cup in his hand, he lets go of the file.

"Why don't you come back tomorrow? When you're not drunk?"

"And risk someone stealing this file off me?"

Shikaku rolls his eyes, "Inoichi, you're the one who brought this out of a classified area, onto the streets while half drunk. Don't lecture me. Go home and sober up, your wife must be upset."

Inoichi has gone deathly still.

The Yamanaka Clan Head leaves the file on the table.

"I'll leave this here for you. Remember you've promised you won't go nuts."

 _Now, that friend of his has made him interested and irritated at the same time. Now he has more work documents to review and no drinking buddy._

Report: Unsanctioned Aid Rendered

Submitted by: Haruno Sakura

Reviewed by: Yamashiro Aoba _(The handwriting changes)_

Location: Kumogakure no Sato

Type: Unsanctioned Service

Description: Attempted and completed the first ever successful rewiring of nerves of the upper torso, reconnection of chakra pathways in a mature ninja. Damage caused by Lighting Style jutsu was reversed, patient recovered and released back into the field.

Initial Diagnosis, Prior Treatments, Historical Treatments Referenced

ref to Appendices A, B, C.

Reward received: Non-monetary.

Patient 'Tenkawa' related her life story to me, and I listened to her speak of her teammate, 'Kurotaki'. _(Sakura slips into a personal voice.)_

 _[Shikaku hardly dares to breathe. Tenkawa?]_

Ref to Appendix D

Summary: Friendly gesture of a Konoha ninja to Cloud ninja/civilian family. Strengthened trade ties. Overall positive outcome. _(the handwriting from this section on is Aoba's, he presumes.)_

Final notes: 'Tenkawa' died during our trip. She was sent out on a recon mission in the Valley of Lightning and was killed. Overall, we have managed to improve ties with Kumo without adding to their active shinobi force.

Shikaku flips to the back, the pink tagged page for Appendix D.

Inoichi's delicate characters, "It's her."

* * *

Shikaku formed a link, Inoichi confirmed it.

So even if Sakura didn't know, Shikaku knew, and when he looks at Sakura he can no longer tell whether he should thank the child for healing his wife, or hate her for killing his wife.

Because he is a rational man, and knows that if Sakura never healed his wife, his wife would have been in psychological agony, but he also knows that if Sakura never healed his wife, she wouldn't have been out in the treacherous terrain of the Land of Lightning, and would never have died.

But at times, he is an irrational man, and those words, "She and Kurotaki-san loved each other with all their heart," repeat in his head, and he wonders if those words were a lie or a truth, and he feels this crushing sense of emotional agony.

 _Of sorts, he supposes._

Yoshino has been gone, for so long. She might as well have been dead since forever.

But when he reads those lines over again,

[

"Do you have any family left?"

She shakes her head, "To me, they're all dead."

"Then there are some alive?"

"It's been years. I was married. I think we had a son. All these memories, from the before, they're all foggy now."

She helps the lady swing her legs over the edge of the bed.

"But if they were, would you go back to them?"

She taps the lady, just beneath her kneecap, and it jerks.

"I don't think I would. They've probably forgotten me too. They've probably moved on. His family always struck me as that. Apathetic."

]

He wonders, and questions if, perhaps he was wrong to have waited.

Wrong to have waited so long, going through the labour of courting to marry a woman whom clan elders stereotyped would fit him like all his uncles well;

Wrong to have waited for a woman who borne him a son within the first month of their marriage and promptly agreed to go for a long-term infiltration mission the moment she recovered from her pregnancy;

Who left Shika-chan to him the moment she could and never looked back, as if pregnancy was but a long-term flu she couldn't be happier to be over.

 _These aren't healthy thoughts of course._

But he's not sure which would be worse.

To have wasted _nine plus three_ twelve years on a woman who never loved him or to believe in a beautiful dream and live out the rest of his life a fool.

* * *

He drinks himself into a stupor.

* * *

His next waking moment is Shikamaru dropping a jug.

His shadows react – the shadows of their home saturated in their chakra – they bind him quickly, catching him jug and all.

The feeling of being intertwined with chakra that also reacted to protect Shikamaru, chains melding with his binding shadows, catching Shikamaru – appreciating the soft glow of a chakra disc flattened to protect Shikamaru from the jug that would no doubt have shattered without his intervention.

Sakura's bright eyes, meeting his.

They pause there in that position, catching their breath as Shikamaru sags in relief.

Chakra tangling like fingers threading themselves together and he once again feels, Sakura feels similar.

Similar in nature, in temperament, in logic, even chakra-wise, there's a touch of Nara-ness to her chains that allow them to link up with his shadow bind.

He toys with the idea that perhaps, Nara clansmen do not need partners that are their direct opposite but rather they never pursued one similar to their nature enough and never found that another type would fit them better.

Coupled with their naturally lazy temperament, most simply resigned themselves to the usual stereotype and focussed their expectations on the partners that the clan deemed 'loud', 'fiery' and 'passionate'.

Shikaku considers that perhaps, people like that would not want to live with strategists who play go to relax, but rather with active ninjas who go out into the field and get hurt alongside them like Tenkawa had Kurotaki.

"Nara-sama?"

She calls out to him, quietly, but he doesn't react.

"Dad? You can let go now…"

His son, trying to assure him but he's not really in it.

Sakura tries again, Shikaku feels her chains on his hand, pulsing green healing chakra and his hands relaxing against his will, his one-handed hand sign relaxing out of formation.

Step, by step, unwinding his shadow binds on Shikamaru one at a time, careful not to make him feel threatened.

The real human makes her way over to him, picking up the jug and filling a cup – the slosh of water as she crosses the room.

Her warm, strong hand supporting his back and helping him sit up, leaning him against the headrest.

"Drink some water, Shikaku-sama."

While he knows through a haze of alcohol the familiar form of address means nothing but a psychological attempt used by doctors to coax semi-conscious patients into compliance, he complies, drinking.

Shikamaru slips out of the room carrying a basin of his sick.

He cringes at the state he must be in.

A cloth wipes his lips, folded, wipes his face, folded, his neck.

He feels the gaps on his face where the cloth does not wipe, the two gashes diagonally down his face.

The cloth is rinsed – the sound of cloth being dipped into water and the _swish_ as the cloth is washed and the irregular dripping sound from the cloth being wrung out.

It's the only thing between his skin and her gentle fingers – darkened, old scar tissue and tender wounds.

He shivers and she withdraws.

"Sorry, Shikaku-sama. Rest well."

She sets his glass on the side table and helps him lie back down.

* * *

"Come on, Shika-chan. Let's get you packed quickly so you can sleep at least some."

"I'm sorry… about my dad I mean. Usually, he isn't like that."

Shikaku can't sleep.

He can hear the wry smile in Sakura's voice.

"Don't be sorry, Shika-chan."

Low murmurs and the shuffling, clinking of equipment and scrolls and clothes.

An unknown amount of time passes but his eyes are wide open, still thinking of her green eyes.

"Alright, looks like we're done, Shika-chan. I'm going to go home now, okay?"

He imagines that Shikamaru nods.

They continue talking for a while – Shikaku forces himself out of bed, down the stairs, to do the dishes he didn't do before getting drunk.

Sakura attempts to slip past him, but the shadows of the dining room gently hold onto her.

"Stay the night, Sakura. It's the least I can offer you."

She begins to attempt to decline.

"I can't walk you home like the last time, I'm too drunk to protect you from the people in your area. We have empty rooms. Stay the night and Shikamaru will walk you home tomorrow morning."

His shadows nudge her upstairs and she allows herself to be led.

Rather than place her in his room like he did that time she fainted during the clan kid meeting, he gives her Yoshino's room.

He's not sure why he would do that but he knows he can't replace Yoshino with Sakura.

He's not even sure if he wants anything to do with Yoshino anymore.

But he does know that he wants Sakura to know she is welcome anytime.

 _He dreams restfully of pink hair and green eyes, rather than black hair and black eyes, the wry smile and gentle hands on his face._

* * *

He knocks on her door the next morning, telling her, "Sakura, it's almost six. Shikamaru's up already, you should go and get your bag if you all want to be on time for classes."

He enters when he doesn't hear a reply and is surprised to find her awake.

Her green eyes are bright with tears.

He crosses the room, asking, "What's wrong?"

Her eyes, looking over his shoulder to the dresser table, the picture of the dresser and Shikaku immediately has a shadow push it over.

"I killed her. I killed Yoshino-san."

Shikaku gathers her up in his arms and rubs soothing circles on her back.

"You didn't. You saved her, you healed her, Sakura."

To Shikaku it doesn't matter, but to Sakura is does – she's breathing unevenly.

"Why don't you hate me, Shikaku-sama?" she asks, beginning to lose her breath.

"Because I can't love someone who never loved me back," he says it out loud, "I can't love someone who went rogue and threatened the village that I held dear."

Spinning more lies to comfort her and calm her down, painfully aware that Shikamaru is just there at the door.

"You loved her once, Shikaku-sama," she observes quietly, calming down.

He doesn't deny it.

"That's how I had Shikamaru, after all. He's my son that I wouldn't have had without her."

He's looking into her eyes, and she looks back.

"I am not Shikamaru's mother, Shikaku-sama."

He cups her chin, "No, you aren't. You're Sakura."

* * *

She's Shikamaru's age but mentally she's like his mother.

She's the age of his child but mentally they engage on an almost equal standing.

* * *

 _Age is not just a number._

 _But age is relative._

* * *

He kissed her.

She kissed back and that was fine.

Shikamaru comments that "He's a drag," slipping in the, "Kaa-san," cheekily.

* * *

Hello!

You all get this early, hope it was good?

o.o what have I written argh it's so unromantic and unfluffy but I'm not sure how to make the progression any more natural than that.

Honestly, this idea that Yoshino really never loved them has been in the back of my mind since people asked if Shikaku was in Chains!verse in love with Sakura.

I assure you that in Chains!verse case, Shikaku has stayed in love with Yoshino, and Sakura reminds him of her, but what Shikaku loves is still Yoshino.

Much love to dear readers, I'll see if I can cook up a chapter of Chains for the more usual end of month update, but might not make it, cause, oops, not doing all too well for my studies.

As always, do leave a review, I really appreciate each and every one.

(also, gosh, embarrassing little typos in my older chapters, someday, I hope to get around to correcting those)


	3. Chapter 3 - Math Teacher AU

3\. In a more realistic manner of speaking in terms of SI/OC-inserts, Yuurei doesn't speak Japanese as a first language. One can imagine that being a 6-year-old with subpar abilities in communication leads to drastic differences.

A short story of the life of Haruno Sakura – Breaking canon four-ways to Fridays, Sakura ends up with Iruka moving in. Uncertainty in the face of adversity.

* * *

 _When you wake up in a bed that's not your own, what do you do?_

Most people panic, it's difficult to say that you won't even if you try your best to believe in your own resilience.

Even if 'they' is, was, used to be, somewhat still is, a medically trained professional, they certainly have never studied out-of-body experiences. So taking their situation at face value, it is definitely a shock.

When they first climb out of bed, they notice a few things, one that they're small, a child, or a dwarf. Their vocal cords vibrate as they try to speak – but their native language in their head wars with their tongue.

Nothing is being pronounced correctly.

They look into the mirror, at the face of the little girl with pink hair and beautiful green eyes and the cutest button nose. Narcissism is not a virtue, but this body that is not theirs quite yet is a sweet dumpling.

They can't help but smile at their thought, and the girl in the mirror smiles as well. _She's pretty._

Their room is a plain, pastel colour, nicely put together. A dresser complete with the vanity mirror, some hair accessories and a handful of gold coins. Round coins with square holes in them, some kind of less than modern East Asian society, though that's not certain.

Not only have they swapped bodies, or lost their own, they've moved in time. _Fascinating._

But look at the cloth, cotton spun clothes, and even plastic bottled play-pretend toys on her dresser. It is the oddest mix of the present and the past.

So they explore a little more, taking a cautious step into an adjacent room, an attached toilet. This must be a wealthy family for a young girl to get her own room with a bathroom that is hers only.

A nice, fluffy towel, strawberry-scented shampoo, just one toothbrush in a purple cup by the sink.

They look at the shampoo bottle, trying to make sense of the label. If not for the obvious picture of a strawberry on it, they can't 'read' the characters on the bottle. Looks like Japanese, but they never studied that.

 _Well. That's going to be a problem._

They're banking on the hope that if the house is so modern, then someone will be able to speak enough other languages, enough to direct them to a scientist?

They would certainly start a scientific revolution.

* * *

They've done something, definitely. Maybe these people believe in a particular religion and think she's speaking in tongues. Her home seems newly vacated, but they don't understand how a small child like her could have handled living alone while keeping everything so clean.

Not to mention, the house is expensive looking, in a nice part of town. Nothing looks spoilt, the fridge is stocked for one small child.

They're banking on their parents being temporarily away, but the cupboards have been checked – those are dusty. In the kitchen, only one set of cutlery show signs of being used recently.

 _Could the girl's parents be working away from home, maybe sending money back?_

They're still hoping so, but there is no mantelpiece full of letters or envelopes – there's no other place for money at all. The girl doesn't have a piggy bank, her coins were strewn on her dresser like she had no care for them.

 _An odd situation._

There was a man who looked at them immediately when they opened the door; a sharp and observant man. Young, average looking, but intelligent and with very good senses.

The street is crowded and it's not like they threw open the door, but his eyes snapped towards them for a fraction and then looked away, carrying on like usual.

They don't pick him to talk to, of course, since no child should talk to strangers who pay them particular attention. They can't go too far either since they haven't found the house keys.

Nice portion of town or otherwise, they, and this girl body of theirs cannot risk things.

They pick the harmless-looking man who turns to give them a curious look, but then there's something that flashes in the man's eyes. _Pity._

They turn the girl's lovely green eyes on the male and open their mouth, but nothing can come out.

He's dressed in an interesting looking uniform, a green vest with the smallest pockets anyone has ever seen, fitting one pen per each of the six pockets. He approaches and kneels down to their height and they think, _he must work with kids well._

Japanese, a few lines of a language they can neither speak nor understand well, comes out of the guy's mouth. They blank out, cocking their head aside to show their confusion.

That confusion is mirrored in the man's eyes before the pity comes back.

"Sakura-chan?" the male repeats something a few times to get them out of their blank state. "Sakura-chan?" a noun and a suffix. _The suffix to denote their station?_ "chan" a ringing sound.

And "Sakura", their name it must be.

They repeat it back to him, in their voice, that of a child, "Sakura..?" The vocal cords mimic the sound perfectly, carrying their every emotion for them.

And there, suddenly, the whole street has gone silent. Indeed, they have accomplished something. If it were attention they were trying to get, they now have it.

The man is trying something, trying to ask her something. Using a caring and patient voice, but they, 'Sakura' cannot understand. They cock their head to the other side, repeating their name in a confused fashion. She tries with the uncooperative vocal cords, and she asks, "Who are you?" in a language they have never heard.

Their tongue doesn't drag the 'oo' or roll the 'r' well. Naturally, the male doesn't understand.

The male turns around and offers his back, patting on it, in a signal to get 'Sakura' to climb on. _Surely she is being offered a ride to someone who may solve her problem._

She points at the doorknob and hand gestures to show that she hasn't locked it, and that she wants to. The male catches on very quickly and waves over the sharp-eyed man.

At this point, Sakura is becoming a little bit suspicious. But she has no choice.

The man kneels down on one knee before her, attempting to mimic the action of some chivalrous knight in the 13th century. Sakura looks unamused at the nice man, and he laughs at the other man who almost pouts.

She looks at him again and observes. He's biting a needle in between his teeth and wears a bandana over his head. In stories, that is what bandits are dressed like.

So they take the needle from him, a physical promise maybe, and then climb onto the other man's back, placing the needle into one of his pen pockets.

It's not sanitary, and the doctor in them is mildly discomfited. But since he probably isn't sick, it will be fine.

* * *

The man giving her a piggyback runs very fast, and he's remarkably strong. To carry a child on one's back and still be able to run an extended distance is no mean feat.

She holds on tight and can feel his steady pulse through his jugular vein. He carries her towards a huge building painted red and orange.

Through the doors, he hollers a reply to someone who has called out to them in again, Japanese. Clearly her helper is well-known and well-liked in the village.

She looks at his face, curious like a child, he looks back at her while running up a rotunda and smiles reassuringly. A rare individual whose smile makes one feel like everything is alright.

Eventually, they stop at a set of big oak doors, and the man knocks, calling out to someone with a suffix of a '-sama'. Though they don't know what that means in Japanese, in Malay it means 'the same', and so they guess that in Japanese it's a polite term.

When they step in, Sakura is blessed by an overlooking view of the whole place she has been transferred into. And what a great height they have climbed to.

Her helper's pulse has barely even increased.

He speaks to a much older man – a village head likely, in a very respectful and very professional tone. Then her name is called.

She responds not on the first time since she didn't hear it. Her green eyes must be wide open in curiosity.

They're talking again, presumably about her lack of language ability. Then her helper is there again, speaking to her in a coaxing tone. She shakes her head to tell him, and tries, "I don't understand you."

They don't understand her, so she sighs. "And you don't understand me."

She hopes they don't write her off as unintelligent. So she searches up in her brain for some kind of Japanese word she knows. _Basic. Anything._

The only thing she can say is "Arigato." Then her helper is radiating a pleased kind of delight. She pats him on the shoulder and says it again, meaning it.

There is something now, shining in the eyes of the elder man in front of her. He pats himself on the chest strongly, and tells her "Hi, ru, zen." As if she's a child who needs each syllable enunciated for her to catch. _How demeaning._

She calls out to him, keeping the same suffix as she heard outside the door, "Hi-ru-zen-sama."

Her helper has put her down on the floor and is looking at her, amazed again. He's asking something, possibly as to how she knows to use the suffix.

She points at the door and mimics his action, of knocking, then points at him and says, "-sama."

The male blushes and she notices the scar across his nose bridge. 'Hi-ru-zen' is chuckling.

"I-ru-ka." Her helper pats himself now and tells her his name. She smiles and bows, calling him, "Iruka-sama."

He waves his hands frantically, telling her, "Sensei, Iruka-sensei." She arches her eyebrow before repeating what he wishes, "Iruka-sensei."

They are making arrangements for her. She wonders what sort of suffix 'sensei' is.

* * *

The nice male brings her home again via piggyback. It's a very convenient mode of travel, as fast as a bus service once one considers that a bus has to stop and pick up passengers.

When they reach her home, the sharp-eyed man is sitting on her doorstep.

She takes the needle from Iruka's pen pocket and hops off his back, walking over to the man and giving it back. Unsurprisingly, he has another needle now in his mouth.

A habit, it is. He grins all teeth and thanks her. She thanks him back with an "Arigato." Iruka says something to him, probably an explanation again of her lack of fluency in speaking Japanese.

He jabs a finger at his chest and says "Shiranui Genma." Before Iruka can say anything – and Sakura can tell he's about to say something, perhaps to get the man to simplify his words, she repeats it perfectly.

Then she tries the first, and then the second. While traditionally Japanese have their surnames in front, there are often differences due to context. Like "Abe Shinzo" and "Shinzo Abe."

She bows politely and calls him "Genma-sama." The man is very pleased, and she takes a step back towards Iruka. This time her helper really does scold him, possibly for scaring her.

 _What else should one feel when a sharp-eyed man with a needle in between his lips takes a look at you and smiles all teeth?_

* * *

Anyway, Iruka ends up moving in with her.

He finds the keys, and the household money stash, so she owes pretty much everything to him.

She delegates him the only other room, the master bedroom since her parents appear to have actually gone away. He explains to her that he has to go to his own house to get things that first evening.

And he also teaches her the language. They use a lot of paper and a lot of stick man drawings.

So eventually she learns that 'sensei' means teacher and that Iruka is actually a teacher. Which, for one, explains how he's so close to the leader of the village, who is called a "fire shadow".

There are some philosophical underpinnings to that which she can't understand yet due to the lack of her understanding of the language.

He drew a fire and then pointed at a shadow. That's easy enough. _But isn't a leader like the guiding light?_

A week after, she actually finds a light in the village. She points at him and she feels for the first time that Iruka can also be, well, unkind.

Many of the people walking in the street exhibit the same look of distaste at the little blond boy in the thin white shirt.

He looks like he's about to cry when he wipes his tears away and smiles instead.

She looks up at Iruka and frowns until she has made her teacher uncomfortable, then she walks over to the boy and stretches her hand out. After all, no child deserves to bear the sins of their parents.

 _And a child deserves no condemnation for existing._

The boy has such beautiful blue eyes. And she tells him that, "Utsukushii," and points at his eyes. He blushes a most vibrant hue and she points again and observes aloud, "Hi," telling him what he already knows, that his cheeks are on fire.

Iruka has caught up with her and suddenly the boy's clear blue eyes are flickering in fear.

She turns around and looks, and really looks at her teacher and she finds, _fear._ Behind the anger.

She pulls on his vest and repeats again, "Utsukushii."

And then she feels a tug on her hair and she starts in surprise. The blond boy pulled on her hair and Iruka's eyes have suddenly softened.

He tells her back, "Utsukushii," for he thinks that her pink hair is well, beautiful.

She looks at him and smiles, before introducing herself, the one full introduction she has learnt.

"Haruno Sakura desu! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"

And he tells her that he's "Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo!"

* * *

The natural progression to things is that Naruto, whose correct suffix is '-kun' for a close, beloved male friend, moves in too.

As a result, Sakura shifts into the master bedroom, and Iruka takes over her smaller bedroom so that the two children can share.

Just as well that he hasn't yet unpacked – and already the home feels like a family.

Naruto-kun teaches her vocabulary, and she learns the words for food very fast thanks to him, especially all the things that go into ramen, which Naruto declares to be "Oishii!". Still, grammar and sentence construction are left for Iruka-sensei to teach when he comes back from work.

Genma-sama comes to watch them occasionally.

Sakura learns very fast, but she hasn't gotten any answers yet. She's still curious as to why people don't like Naruto when he's so sweet.

And they cannot expect her to not have realised that the only things he brought into the home with him were a small Froggie purse, two sets of clothes and a box full of instant cup ramen.

That's no way to treat a child. _In fact, she's surprised he's not malnourished._

She's no paediatrician, but she studied enough during their rotation to know that a child needs more than what carbohydrates and monosodium glutamate can offer.

Sakura has no power and no ability to speak in a solid conversation. But she can give Genma coins and rattle off a list of food and expect him reasonably to come back with those groceries.

They've lived together for a week, but Iruka is not the best homebody. Genma though, for his needle chewing habits, has a very good memory and brings everything back to her. He's strong too.

She cocks her head aside when he returns her the same number of coins. Money is something Iruka hasn't gotten around to teaching, and Naruto knows very little about money. His grandfather buys him most of his things.

It's Iruka who explains later that Naruto's 'jiji' is her 'Hiruzen-sama'. Questions answered and even more created. Sakura is an adult in a child's body. Curious but oh, so limited.

With regards to money, Genma is the one who tells her that her shopping list of a carton of eggs, a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, a bag of tomatoes, a frozen fish, a sack of rice and a bottle of cooking oil costs more than the handful of coins she has given.

She finds paper money from him, and he teaches her numbers. Unfortunately, they don't use the Arabic numerals, but the base system of ten is still used.

Once he writes out the equivalents for 0 to 9, ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand and she notes them down, she wows him with her mathematical prowess.

She watches his needle slacken slightly as she multiplies the random numbers he pulls out from the air.

It's much more difficult to carry over the hundreds and ten thousands when they have a different character.

* * *

And then they called her a genius. Maybe a savant. An irony and something not giving the syndrome it's due respect. Sakura is not sure what to make of it, but the village made her into a mathematician.

So she becomes a teacher, and taught the new math system to a lot of people, with her broken Japanese. It was odd, definitely. Not what she expected of another life. It pays well enough for her to pay back Genma-sama for the week of groceries.

Slowly, she learns as she goes along and _my_ is she surprised to realise that she's in a village full of honest to goodness ninjas.

'Shinobi' the Japanese word for them. And like in a fantasy novel, 'chakra' is real, and they can appear out of nothingness disobeying the law of conservation of energy.

It's difficult not to see off things when you're a tiny girl standing on top of a desk to write on the whiteboard, presiding over a class full of adults wearing the same uniform as Iruka-sensei.

And that's how she also learns that part of the reason why Iruka could carry her is chakra.

'Her' mathematical system is also built off the system of exponential growth because it's easy enough to teach. She picks her top students of each class who go on to teach more people.

Though she's not sure if this is a bias, she finds a statistical correlation that black-haired adults are better at learning the characters. They have eyes that can flash red.

For once, the people waiting at the school gates are the children, and they wait for their parents to come out of class.

She smiles when the adults bow and greet her as "Sensei" because it's such a great reversal.

Sakura ends up forgetting the past too easily.

Because there was nothing to go back to, and suddenly math was all she had to do. Also that there were too many biologists and not enough physicists who knew anything about special or general relativity. So, there was no one she could ask about time travel.

And as it turns out, her parents are well, gone.

'Shinobi', who died while out on a mission, their names carved into a stone in the rock in that forest that Iruka brought her to visit.

She also saw a student of hers there, one with white hair and an animal mask. In the next moment, the person was gone.

She had a whole class of animal masks for four days of a week, on the last they were one short and she was told that that mask had gone for a mission.

She told them to tell the last mask to come for remedial. It's been a month since then, no more masked students have appeared. 'ANBU', the assassination corps.

It's a brutal world out there. Sakura is not… sure.

But they don't expect her to worry about it. Since she is, after all, only Konoha's mathematician.

However, she does, for she believes in a universe written in numbers, wherein she is but a statistical probability.

* * *

If you asked me if I knew I was going to end up writing things this way, the honest answer is nope!

So, a whimsical fic blending dark humour and an attempt at historical realism. The educated adult becomes a child who plays along with the world. Subconsciously influenced by Joy of Life.

Hope you liked it, something a little out of the ordinary. Not much plot, just a touch of relationships.

I'm back from my stint of writing Money Game fanfics on AO3, but wow that was a good show! And so I couldn't make her an economist, but I could make her a mathematician.

As always, open to more prompts! Have been thinking about how to run with Moe's ideas on a different clan picking Sakura, but not sure yet. That will come in the future, no worries :)

Kayo.


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